Optic Fibre?? option for long run

**freakee1** · 20-08-23, 12:53 PM

Hey everyone - I have to connect a house on my property to my home network and as the crow flies it is about 150 metres away from the main AP. If i was to run something I would be pushing about 200 metres from the main AP to the house. Wireless isn't an option as we have tropical bush between us and lightning is something we need to consider during tropical storms in the wet season.

I can possibly do a 130 metre run from another building to the house - based on current configuration (AP in my shed, with routers based around the place)

Is Cat6/e an option with my run?

or something in Optic fibre where I can order a length and devices both sides? - from the main AP to the house

So where do I go?, who do I hassle?

cheers

f

**wotnot** · 20-08-23, 07:02 PM

Hmm.... PoE ethernet extender? ...ie;

...years ago there used to be little PoE ethernet repeaters that were easy to bury with cabling/conduit ~ on another property out here, we setup PoE wifi extenders just for the ease of the point A to point B solution...you just need a 48v injector (same property has PoE networked GPO switches)

**hoe** · 20-08-23, 09:35 PM

Couple of these

One of these

Conduit etc.

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**Bigfella237** · 20-08-23, 09:49 PM

Don't waste your time with copper, fibre won't cost much extra and will be so much more reliable.

What you need depends on what you have and what you want. Assuming you were going to be happy with a 1Gb/s copper wire than the bottom of the range fibre will do the same thing.

Do you have a switch at either end (both buildings) with at least one SFP port? SFP ports are reasonably common and rated at 1Gb/s per port. If so, you just need the fibre cable itself and a transceiver module at each end (modules start around $12 each).

Even if you don't, you can just add a "media converter" for each end that will convert the fibre back to copper (using the transceiver module). SFP media converters are around $50-odd each (on top of the transceivers) and then you just need someone to make up the fibre cable. I know a 50 metre length is around $30 so I guess it would be maybe three times that?

Technically you need someone with a suitable cabling licence to install it for you, but if you have a pre-made cable (and nobody's looking), I guess there's nothing stopping you from plugging it in?

EDIT: DOH, too slow typing, Hoe beat me to it!

I didn't factor-in the cost of conduit since I figured it would be needed for whichever option you went with.

P.S. White conduit is for data cabling (may as well stick with the standard so the next poor bastard who accidently digs it up knows what he's dealing with).

**freakee1** · 21-08-23, 12:24 AM

Originally Posted by hoe

Couple of these

One of these

I think I will head down this path

thank you Hoe

**Bigfella237** · 21-08-23, 11:13 AM

I forgot to mention earlier, if you want some redundancy (cable runs are not easy to dig up and replace), you could run more than one fibre cable between the switches.

If you have managed switches at both ends, you can create a LAG (Link Aggregation Group) on both and run multiple cables in parallel. If everything is working as intended you will get the sum of the total speed of all the links (so three links equals three times the speed), and if one cable/transceiver/converter fails for some reason it should automatically fall back onto the other(s).

Obviously this multiplies the costs involved, but it does give you some redundancy and a nice little network speed boost if you're transferring large files.

P.S. Don't connect multiple parallel links without first having created the LAGs on the respective ports at both ends, otherwise you will have a switching loop (data echoing around in a never-ending circle consuming all the bandwidth).

**freakee1** · 21-08-23, 05:06 PM

I have ordered 200metres of optic fibre and 2 TP links

I wont do 2 loops bigfella - don't think it is required, its for my young fella - I can use the existing Telstra conduit and use the 2pair as a draw wire - it's a newish installation for ADSL and runs from my AP right past the house that I need to connect to - and believe it or not - was installed on the fence line (zip tied to the fence so I will bury it when I hire myself a little excavator as I need to bury the irrigation and main water blue stripe properly)

Thank you all for the great information - and of course I have hired a licensed someone to do it

f

**fandtm666** · 21-08-23, 05:53 PM

thats actually not all that expensive to setup , is the cable pre terminated ???

**hoe** · 21-08-23, 06:40 PM

pull a draw string through with it, just in case. bit long for a snake....

**freakee1** · 22-08-23, 12:20 PM

Originally Posted by fandtm666

thats actually not all that expensive to setup , is the cable pre terminated ???

Assume so - will confirm when it arrives

cost was
$89+$20 delivery for optic fibre
$88+$38.95 delivery for TP links

f

**Bigfella237** · 22-08-23, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by freakee1

I have ordered 200metres of optic fibre and ~ I will bury it ~

I didn't look at the specs of the fibre linked above but I wanted to mention that it's important you know the minimum bend radius of the particular cable you ordered.

The cheaper plastic stuff is normally pretty good but the more expensive glass stuff has a fairly large minimum bend radius, which is something you may need to be aware of when running the conduit.

Originally Posted by fandtm666

thats actually not all that expensive to setup ~

Where fibre networking starts to get really expensive is when you step-up from the base-line SFP port, which as previously stated, is reasonably common. There are two distinct form factors, each with three transceiver options:

Mono architecture ports are SFP (1Gb/s), SFP+ (10 Gb/s) and SFP28 (25Gb/s); and
Quad architecture ports are QSFP (4Gb/s), QSFP+ (40gB/s) and QSFP28 (100Gb/s).

For example, if you want to buy a switch with SFP28 ports you're looking at about $6k starting price!

Originally Posted by hoe

pull a draw string through with it, just in case. bit long for a snake....

I was thinking about that just the other day, assuming this "draw-string" is going to sit in the conduit for maybe several years, what would you use?

Obviously it has to be impervious to rotting/corroding/rusting away, especially as conduit often accumulates moisture over time.

And I guess it doesn't matter so much with fibre but it'd be better if it was non-conductive.

**freakee1** · 25-08-23, 09:09 AM

Hey all

200 metres of Optic fibre turned up - I have a twin fibre run with both sides terminated, and both sides marked "A" & "B"
the bend radius would be reasonably small due to the way it is packed - I would say any 32mm conduit elbows would not cause any issues

I would assume builders string should be suffice but with the redundancy maybe not required........

looks like I am going to be busy this weekend

**mtv** · 25-08-23, 10:02 AM

This is what I (and Telstra/NBN) use.

**freakee1** · 14-11-23, 07:36 PM

Hey - update

thanks everyone for the help, all working flawlessly, found that you need an "a" and a "b" TP-Link sender and receiver unit so......

I would like to set up the house with optic fibre for each property in my place - I have 5 individual properties and currently using Cat6 and wavlink N300 in each property.
Due to the number of lightning strikes that hit us during the wet season etc I am thinking of cleaning up my set up and running optic to each property and getting the associated hardware to suit
My intentions are to rewire each property so will be trenching and running submains and will include the optic fibre - so my question......

What hardware would be best suited at the access point - happy to replace current hardware and will update over a period of time.

thanks

f

**hoe** · 14-11-23, 08:59 PM

Maybe try and find a s/h sfp router and some gigabit sfp fibre modules.

The modules are cheap as everyone's upgraded to 10 gigabit.

The router, not so cheap...

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**Bigfella237** · 14-11-23, 09:29 PM

Honestly, it may not look as fancy as a full-fibre switch but, the cheapest option is to just buy more of the same TPLink media converters and cable.

Netgear have some switches with 4x SFP ports but if you need more (or faster) ports than that then the prices go through the roof as you're getting into more professional grade equipment.

I'm looking at a new PoE switch for my CCTV system with 24x RJ45, 4x SFP and 4x SFP25 ports and it's just under $6,500.00!! But that will give me a 50Gb/s (aggregated) link between my video editing PC and my new NAS, which I sorely need as I transfer TB's of UltraHD video back 'n forth and it currently takes FOREVER at 1Gb/s!

BTW, I've never used those TPLink converters myself but I'm surprised to hear that they aren't full duplex. Maybe that's why they're so cheap?